Issue # 123 Zzaj Rant

I thought you might like to know a bit more about some of the projects (besides my magazine) that I’ve been involved in over these last 20 (or so) years… the music/CD’s you see highlighted here are all available for free download, so visit us soon there and get yours while you can:

 

NOWSTERDAY – I was “feeling my (musical) oats” after returning from a job near Detroit; had just gotten a fancy-dancy new rhythm machine & decided to lay down some trax for my long-time recording pal Harlan Mark Vale (oka Kramtones)… after putting my side of the effort together, I sent the package (on CD) off to Mark & he laid down some fantastic drums/percussion/synth on top of what I had offered, & this was the result… one of the tunes that received high marks from reviewers was “African Landscape“… in fact, this is one of my favorite pieces with Kramtones of all time… if you like this one, you’ll probably decide to download all 14 of the tunes.  After you enjoy them (whether you just stream them or download them), please pass these links on to other listeners you think might enjoy them.  My thanks in advance!

 

This one was mucho fun for me… I don’t always get a chance to show my vocal skills, since much of my music involves improvised instruments… I  snipped out 10 of the tracks I had done with me doing vocals on them and sent them off to a my friend Eric Wallack for overdubs… the opener, “Mark My Words“, was originally recorded/performed with guitarist Mark Kissinger (I can’t even remember which tape it came from now; it’s been so many years)… “High Away” was a solo piece I had done on one of my earliest tapes… Eric’s guitar work on this kinda’ “amplified” the vocal and made it sound like a pro studio piece (at least we thought so; you certainly have the right to disagree).  My personal favorite is one called “Loop Thing“… originally done between myself and Harlan Mark Vale (actually, Mark did ALL the instrumentation on this tune, except for the guitars that Eric added)… after I got the track from Mark, I sat down in my studio in Taegu without having even listened to the tune, hooked the mike up & spun it – doing the vocal spontaneous on first listen… see what you think, then feel free to email me at rotcod@rotcodzzaj.com to give me your feedback.

On this CD, my guitar-wizard friend Jim Konen, from Pontiac, Michigan, invited me to his studio… this was the first time we had ever played together, and all the tunes you hear on this recording were recorded/issued “as is”… no overdubs, no editing, just the raw studio experience that we had.  One of the most amazing things was Jim’s ability to play trumpet on his guitar synth – “The Fasttrack“… once I got my keyboard/arpeggiator spun up, the rest of it just kind of “fell together”… for me, this was one of the finest recording moments I’ve ever been part of.  Again, use the email above to tell me what you think of the tune, or the rest of them on this CD.

There are another 57 CD’s available at the Zzaj Collection on Internet Archive.  I hope you enjoy some of the free CD’s, and will spread the word around the Internet to anyone else who enjoys this kind of freeform/spontaneous music!